Digging into the abandoned hornet nest, the Court finds a magical headband. It is a taut black metal band, clipped with a skull of the same black metal.
The dresser is curious, as Djedefre approaches he realizes that it has no drawers, merely carved to look like it does, handles and all. Pulling on the dresser reveals an open back, a slightly tarnished bronze chest hidden in the open space within. The chest is Ancient Osiriani in style, bas reliefs on the sides and lid depicting a busy market. Maat and - surprisingly - Abadar are shown in prominence, overseeing proceedings. The chest is locked.
|
Djedefre carefully examines the chest before Luke and Amal race to open it...
He addresses the Vulture Court, "Interesting chest. Not only is it locked and trapped but there's a secondary lock on the bottom of the chest. That lock can be disabled or opened with a key which will disable the trap. Perhaps something of value in here?"
"Can't remember finding a key here..."
Glad to see there's no inhabitants in that hornet's nest, Senemheb joins looking around the room. Djedefre's findings about about the chest are indeed remarkable. He can't really understand how the priest could spot the trap from the lock. But it is good to have such sharp eyes in the team.
"But maybe the key is somewhere here upstairs. Or, is someone expert with traps and locks?"
"What the...?"
The Taldan could only look on in surprise as the dresser which wasn't a dresser gave way entirely at Amal's touch. The thing turned out to be merely a wooden shell, hiding a chest beneath. Certainly a novel way to stow one's valuables. For what else could such a secreted and secured coffer contain, he thought with no small delight.
"But maybe the key is somewhere here upstairs. Or, is someone expert with traps and locks?"
"Djehuti's the one with the long fingers," Luke remarked, glancing at the selfsame's slender elven digits. "Literally. But if the chest's trapped, we should maybe see if that key's about here somewhere before tampering with it. No reason to risk those fingers unduly, you know?" A nod to the elf followed. "Up to you, of course."
But on the topic of searching what remained of the house, it seemed there was nothing more to see here. So with that the young man strode back into the hallway, eyes a-squint for more trouble.
Djehuti nods. "We can always come back and I can try to open it then." They gesture at the wasp nest they'd pointed out as containing something magical. "It might even be in there."
Jolánka nods at Djehuti and approaches the mound of crumbled paper and likely dead wasps. She takes out a crossbow bolt and uses it to poke through it until she discovers and retrieves the headband.
"Morbid," she comments as she turns around and shows it to the others. "This would be right at home both here and in Ustalav."
She chants a cantrip and looks upon the headband's aura to see if she can identify it.
Djehuti and Jolánka identify the item as a dead man's headband, the style of which would be considered the Gebbite aesthetic - the darker cousin of Ancient Osirion.
Heading back out into the hallway, Luke catches a glimpse of someone headed east on the first floor towards the eastern courtyard not yet explored. Their back is to the Taldan, but it appears human from his vantage point, dressed in contemporary garb rather than ancient.
.
In addition, if this headband is attached to the outside of a hat, the wearer’s hat or headgear cannot be blown off or removed by wind, water, or environmental effects, and the wearer gains a +5 circumstance bonus to his CMD against steal and sunder attempts targeting his headgear.
Looks like a sell item to me since none of us are running an Intimidate/fear build.
** spoiler omitted **
The rough hand froze on the next door before he could push it open. For a figure spied through the balcony opening suddenly took precedence over all else. Luke did a double take, eyes wide as tea saucers, in stopping dead in his tracks. Gone. Gone already. The first floor was once again still as the not so metaphorical grave. Did he just see that right? For a brief moment the young man's frayed nerves assumed the shadowy someone seen below to be a ghost. He'd been expecting some sort of specter to rear its ugly head ever since first being possessed, so why not now?
Yet the cynical side side of him had a far more terrestrial explanation for the figure, glimpsed and gone again. A thief.
"Oh, you low-life son of a..."
The proverb ran true: thieves really did suspect everyone else of stealing. So it was that the grave-robbing foreigner immediately concluded that this stranger could only be some other lottery contestant, or indeed unaffiliated crook, trying to steal from their site. The nerve! This place was his to rob!
"We have a trespasser!" Abandoning the search of the second floor entirely, Luke hurried for the stairs. "I saw 'em! Some moocher thinks they can make off with our loot! I'm gonna send them home with a clear conscience and a broken nose!"
In his own mind, this obviously took precedence over anything else. Never mind the ghoulies of the mansion - those were just another obstacle to the group's rightful spoils. Here was someone making off with said spoils! Having reached the ground floor once more, the Taldan slowed his pace, skulking his way towards the eastern courtyard the same way he'd seen the figure go. Better to take this brigand by surprise.
Djehuti hustles along behind the others. "Watch for an ambush," they say. "Remember they were in a group before," referring to the angry encounter they'd had earlier.
Luke darts downstairs, seeing the figure's cloak corner slip out the now open eastern doors. Peering out, the Taldan sees the eastern courtyard. A spacious yard fills the compound east of the house. To the east, several small stone outbuildings have been built right into the compound’s outer wall. A well stands between two of these outbuildings, opposite a stone table and benches that sit in the shadow of the house. To the west, two sets of steps, both flanked by columns, lead up to doors into the main house. To the northwest, an open doorway leads into
an extension of the house, next to a small structure with a domed roof.
The figure is seen slipping into the open doorway of the larger southern out building , again only the corner of his or her cloak seen.
Senemheb, with his heavier armor, is struggling to keep up. But nonetheless, tries to stay together with the team.
Following the cleric's finger, Luke nodded in spying the scrap of cloak flitting around the corner of an outbuilding. Right then. He squared his shoulders and drew his sword, the metal hissing its way from the sheath. Confrontations like these were never pleasant. In any gray market dealings, there came a time when you had to stand up for yourself. This was simply part of doing business. After all, when your business skirted the law, the law wasn't there to stand up for you. A fence not willing to pay a fair price, a partner in banditry who decided they deserved your share as well... The common wisdom held true: there really was no honor among thieves.
The Taldan had had to learn some harsh lessons during his first outings as tomb robber. But that was then and this was now. And not only was he ready and willing to fight for what was his now, they actually had the law on their side. The group's excursion to the manor was entirely legal, encouraged even. Anything found here was theirs. So it was a seemingly supremely confident Luke who swaggered into the small space to growl:
"Alright, buddy, you might want to tell me what you think you're doing here. 'Cause I have a theory myself and it's none too flattering for you." The blade held firmly in one hand glinted in the sunlight.
Jolánka rushes to keep up with the others, the weight of her gear slowing her nimble body down. Once they've cornered the intruder, she straightens up and gives them an imperious glower.
"The rules of the Lottery clearly state to only delve into places your group has been assigned, so either you've gotten lost and thought you'd make an easy bit of gold off our hard work, or you've been following us."
The "intruder" stands with its back to the Court. Its plain white robe is spotless, and its shaven head shows no sweat from the sun. It turns around slowly, pivoting rather than moving its feet or legs, to reveal it has no face. Something cackles in a high pitched, grating voice, and the illusion vanishes, revealing another horrifying sight.
A beast the size of a horse rises from the dug-up sand, its two canine heads snarling despite one missing its lower jaw. Its matted black fur is pockmarked with maggots and decay, some of which falls squirming to the dust.
What in the blue blazes...?
As the intruder very literally vanished into thin air, they left Luke with a most bewildered expression, half startled and fully confused. What was that all about? And what was it for that matter? A ghost? If so, what sort of spectral freak forgot to pack their face in leaving the material world?! Had that even been the same figure he'd glimpsed earlier?
All reasonable questions which would have to wait. Because the young man only managed to look quizzically to the others, mouth open in query, before all hell broke loose. "Whoa!" Bewilderment made way for alarm as the ground just below where the faceless figure had stood - or rather floated - exploded into a shower of sand. What emerged was something best left buried: a two-headed canine horror, bleeding maggots and pus.
"Oh, what the hell?!" as asked in exasperation. Whatever it was, it was entirely material as opposed to the specter. And eager to put those corporeal fangs to use. All the more reason to put it down first. Leaping forward, Luke swung his sword in an overhead arc, blade chopping into diseased flesh and worms both.
"This is a death dog, said to have been reanimated by monster worshiping cultists, they are actually rotting puppets for the worms seen through the decaying flesh. Its saliva holds hundreds of eggs, making its bite the means of propagating its condition."
Djehuti tosses a splash of acid at the deadly, disease-ridden dog.
"Were did the intruder go!?"
They were clearly lured here, to this beast. But by whom? And why?
But no time to ponder that while the two snarling heads are in biting distance. Senemheb takes a few step forwards, and swings with his blade.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Luke, Amal, and Senemheb land devastating blows on the monster, Djehuti's acid flying far from its target. Once more proving its capabilities, the Court slay the beast before it gets a chance to defend itself. Worms and rot fly and coat the floor of this small, one-room structure, devoid of features, save the ruined remains of furniture that have all but disintegrated with the passage of time.
However, even as this voice speaks should you look around you cannot see the source.
"Ah some coin! Not the riches we were hoping for but any coin is good coin."
"Whoop-de-doo," the Taldan exclaimed, sarcasm thick as gutter mud running off every syllable. He was clearly still more than a little agitated at the vanishing maybe-ghost and the trap it had led them into. That, and the myriad maggots now coating his sword. "Never mind the loose change! What the hell just happened?!"
A deep breath followed, as if from a brute calming down in realizing he'd said something unforgivable in his rage. "Sorry, sorry. You're right of course." What was he thinking? "Obviously the money comes first."
A little worm went flying as Luke began flicking them off the sword. "Seriously though... What was this all about? Was that some manor haunt hoping to kill us via stinking mutt? And that intruder I saw - I'm not even sure that was the same... faceless whatsit we caught up to. The person I saw was wearing, I dunno, modern garb. I think."
Djehuti shrugs and nods in agreement with Luke. "Coin spends, regardless. That was an illusion, I think. We should be careful about chasing things down hallways here- the next one might lead you over a hidden pit."
As the Court prepares to head north, there is a sound of a scuffle underneath the stone table just northwest of you. From underneath it, emerging from the shadow hissing and agitated, a trio of long brown snakes slither forward and strike at Jolánka, Djehuti, and Amal's ankles. Amal's angle feet manage to avoid being struck, and the wizard's arcane armor deflects fangs, but the northern woman's ankle bursts in pain as the serpent's fangs sink in through a thin area of her boot.
And here he'd thought the giant zombie-mutt was the extent of the trap they'd been lured into. As if that hadn't been bad enough! More fool him. For whether due to the group's naivety or the sheer cruelty of whatever machinator had it out for them, none saw the snakes coming.
"It's just one thing after another here...!"
If nothing else, plain exasperation gave the Taldan's swordarm all the more oomph. Enmity had swung more blades than mere muscle ever had. So it was here as one serpent suddenly found itself decapitated, head lopped off cleanly as were it guilty in a Galtan court.